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Alright, amen. John chapter 16. Keep your place there, but go to Matthew chapter number 5. Matthew chapter 5. And I'm going to have you keep your place there as well, and then quickly we'll go to 2 Thessalonians. But Matthew chapter 5. So really, I have us read John 16 because we're going to go over the first three verses. I'm just going to read those again briefly for you. It says, These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended. And we're going to go back to chapter 15 and take a look at those things, because it's important that we learn not to be offended in the Christian life. And then in verse 2 he says, They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. I was reading these the other day, and I was just kind of thinking like, well, obviously these have already happened. You know, we've talked about Acts. We've gone, we're going through Acts. We're almost done with Acts. I mean, you know, Stephen comes to mind, right? They killed him. A lot of the apostles wound up suffering great persecution all by the Pharisees and these Jews who thought they were doing God service. And it kind of reminded me about some of the persecution from our own family and from the community. You know, all you know, these people say all sorts of horrible things to us in the name of Christ. You know, they think they do God a service, but in reality, they don't know him. Now, if you would look at verse number 13. Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 says this, Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Keep your place there, but go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. And basically the sermon is kind of like some runoff from stuff I had to cut out of my red hot preaching. So these things still are on my heart. So I got to get them off, you know, and that happens. You guys didn't write sermons. You understand that, right? You get one this is going to be like five hours long. And so, well, that's all right. I'll just cut this back. And then I got the next five weeks of sermons. And so that's really what this is about. But Jesus makes a statement here and he says that we right. Those of us who are saved are the salt of the earth. And he makes a statement. He says, But if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? I've heard all kinds of crazy interpretations over the years. For example, I can remember being in a lame liberal church and them saying, Well, you know, back in the day in Palestine and in the surrounding areas, they would burn dung and then they would use salt. And then what was left over after the fire burnt, you know, was just these little crystals and didn't have any more savour. And so that's what Jesus is saying that you'll be like if you don't do any works, you know, and it's like that's that's lame. All right. But that's the kind of interpretations and stuff that are out there. Basically, what he's saying is that we have the responsibility to actually preserve the world. You think about that. You know, if you study just the last 30, 40, 50 years of American history, especially regarding churches, and you just start looking at these different denominations and even Baptists, you know, all manner of Christians, you'll notice that they've gone soft on a lot of issues. Right. Sin compromising. Why? Because they want the money, because their heads in the world, they're you know, they're just not. They've basically lost their savour. And simultaneously what has happened? The country is going downhill at a very high rate of speed. And you know that Jesus makes a statement also in the gospels where he tells the disciples, he says, you know, Satan savour is not the things of God. And what you need to learn from that is that the closer that you get to the devil and doing his types of work. And look, we all fall prey to different things. You know, the less of a savoury Christian you're going to be. Right. Because he doesn't savour the things. So when you're living in the world, you're not going to really be doing your job. We're not going to be as effective as we could be. One thing that is a fact that still goes on today is that people use salt to preserve meat. Right. And so that's exactly what he's saying. We're kind of like that. We're here to preserve the world. Obviously through soul winning, but also through taking hard stands on issues that come from the Bible. You know, we shouldn't compromise on abortion. We shouldn't compromise on pedophiles. We shouldn't compromise on the sodomites or any of that type of stuff because the result is a loss of savour. Now I'm going to show you something here. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse three, it says, Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except to come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. I think it's interesting here that the devil is going to make war with the Saints and overcome us for a period of time. And you know what? You can't help but think that part of that is due to the lack of Christians that are willing to put in some work today. I mean, think about it. The Gospel still has power. We go out and get people saved every single week. Right. But where are they all? You know what I mean? Where? What are they doing? They just stay home. And you know what? They own some of the blame. They are also to be blamed. But then we're left with all these other churches around here and in the country that really aren't doing anything for God. They're not preaching the right Gospel. Or if they are saved, they're just wishy-washy on it. And they're like, well, you know, he didn't really mean to, you know, they're not taking a hard stance on anything. You know, they're not making the word of God savoury to people. You know, even a lot of unsafe people, they can look at Joel Osteen and Stephen Furtick and a lot of these other clowns that are out there and know something's wrong. You know, they can see that stuff and they're like, OK, these people just obviously want money. They obviously want the easy street. And guess what? That doesn't help us at all. You know, they are definitely a huge part of the problem. But I titled this sermon Savor Check. A Savor Check. And the purpose of this sermon is to make sure that we do an honest self-assessment of our own lives. How are we doing when it comes to the subject of Savor? And then also I'm going to show you from the Bible, I'm going to give you three things this evening to hope, hopefully help you to never lose your savour. All right. And so you say, OK, well, I'm not doing some of these. Right. That's OK. That's what this is for is to help you out. Right. Because, look, we don't want to be trodden under the foot of men. I mean, you think about it, you know, these people that go out, you know, they get saved. We love them. God bless them. Right. But they don't go to church. And here's what I find. Sometimes we'll run into them later. Oh, it's so good to see you again. Oh, but I'm just in pain. You know, they start telling you, oh, this is wrong. That's wrong. This is wrong. That's wrong. They're literally being trodden under the foot of men all because they're good for nothing. See, once you get saved, you're in a whole nother family now. You're in a whole nother league. And the rules of the world no longer apply to you. You're not going to get help from the world. You're only going to get it from the word of God. We need to be sure that we understand that. Now, go back to John chapter number one. And so here's the bottom line. You know, Christians that are useful are effective and Christians that are effective cause others to thirst. You think about it. You drink a salty drink or you eat something that's salty. What's the first thing you want to do? You want to drink some water, right? You know, Bradley and Marissa gave me some of these electrolyte supplements. You know, these salty things. I just drank one. And now I'm like, man, I need to drink a bottle of water. I'm actually thirsty. I didn't plan to say that. I'm just thinking about this. We're talking about salt. And so the application there is the more salty we are as believers, right? The more it's going to cause other people to want to drink of the things of God. He's going to show us everything, how we do that. And we're going to see that this evening. Now, real quickly, look at verse one. Jesus says in John 16 one, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. And so go back to John 15 and let's just go take a look at some of these things because, you know, you can't just start off a chapter and then just be like, oh, okay, you know, you got to make sure you understand the things before that because he says, these things I have spoken unto you that you should not be offended. Well, here's the thing. If you get offended and you quit on God or you quit church, then guess what? You lost your Savior. Okay. And so we need to make sure that we fully understand these things to check and keep our Savior. So John 15 one, Jesus makes a statement. So these are one of these things that he wants us to clearly understand so that we do not get offended. Verse one. I am the true vine and my father is the husband. What is he saying? He's saying there is only one way to be saved. There's only one truth. There aren't multiple truths. That's a lie. You know, that works out great for the ecumenical list, right? That works out great for the New Evangelical. That works out great for the Mormon and the Jehovah Witness and all these other peoples. But it doesn't work out for the word of God, for the Bible believing Christian. And he says, hey, I am the true vine. It's it. It's a done deal. It's over. You have to understand this. And if you think about it, everyone in here has probably heard somebody or probably met somebody who claims to be a Christian, who names the name of Christ, and they get offended because you say that. You say, hey, do you think if somebody believes in Buddha, they'll go to hell? No, the God that I serve will never throw somebody in hell. What? Well, who goes to hell then? I don't know. People that don't repent of their sins. Look at verse two. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. So when you take this message, right, that he is the true vine, that he is the only way, you need to decide that that is going to be the stance that you take. That's the line in the sand you're going to draw. And that's what you're going to stand up for. Then guess what? The world's going to come after you. And guess what? Jesus is going to purge you. He's going to see what you're made of. He's going to send a little trial, a little persecution, a little battle your way. And then guess what? We're going to see if you get offended. We're going to see how much savor you've really got. Look at verse three. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. So how is a person made clean? How is a person born again? Just like he said in verse one, through the word of God. Not through the word that you audibly heard in your prison cell down at the penitentiary. That's not how people get saved. You get saved by hearing the words that are written in this book. The Bible says in Proverbs 29, who can say I've made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin. That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no one. It's the word of God that makes this clear. But here's the thing. It's easy for us to be like, okay, yeah, amen. I understand that. This is great. I got that. I know the doctrine, right? But what happens when somebody attacks you on that? Are you going to get offended? Or can you defend it? That's the question you ask yourself. First Peter chapter one, verse 23. Very familiar verse. You don't have to turn there. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And so these are all just things to kind of support what he's already teaching us here. Verse one, he says, Hey, I am the true vine. There's no other way. This is what it is. If you get offended because of this, we have a big problem. Now look down a verse, jump down to verse number 14. He says this. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends for all things I have heard of my father. I have made known on to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain. And whatsoever you ask or you shall ask of the father of my name, he may give it to you. There's a little tip on how to get your prayers answered there. You know, making sure that you're in good standing, making sure you're the friend of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? That you have things in proper perspective. Verse 17. These things I command you that you love one another. All right. You can go back to John chapter 16. And we've already gone through the whole chapter. I don't want to go through the whole thing. But you get the point. The point is he's making these statements. Hey, I don't want you to be offended, right? I'm telling you these things for a reason. You have to know these. You have to understand these. So he says, what? I'm the true vine. You're washed. You're cleaned by the Bible, by the word of God. These things shouldn't offend us. Now, here's the thing. When they do offend somebody, you need to know that there's a problem on your hands. Either the person's not saved or they're extremely backslidden. And now it's time for you to help and get that person straight. So let's see here. Point number one, retaining your saver requires you to be offense proof. Retaining your saver requires you to be offense proof. So again, that's why he makes a statement here in John 61 says, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. So when we cement these doctrines and these truths down in our hearts and we're willing to stand up for them, you have a less of a chance of becoming offended. Okay? Now, let's see here. Turn to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter number one. So point number one, retaining saver requires you to be offense proof. You have to be the type of person that is willing to not get offended, no matter what somebody says or does to you. I mean, think about it. I said this before. How was it that Paul was able to get beaten, go to jail with the rest of the apostles and still want to go soul winning and still want to move forward? I've seen people get talked to rudely at the door during my time as a soul winner and then want to quit and then actually quit. I met a person one time. I was like, I just don't know if I can keep doing this. It's like they're just words. Not every single door is like that. Yeah, but this world's going to hell and I think we just need to hunker down. That's the wrong attitude. There's somebody that's on their way out. Now, I wonder what that person's doing today to preserve the world. Are they on Facebook saying, oh, yeah, you know, let's get these governors and stuff out of here. You suck. You know, making these little, you know, somewhat righteous comments today and they think that like they're doing such a great job at, you know, swaying the world and righteousness. Give me a break. If you're not out there in the battle, you will get offended. OK, Psalm 119, 165. You don't have to turn there, but it says, Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. So the answer to what I'm trying to tell you this evening is to make sure that you develop a love for the law. You know, to make sure that you develop and check yourself. You know, do you love the law? Do you love the Bible or do you love the Bible? You know, do you love the law? Do you love the Bible or do you get offended every time you hear a sermon? Right, because there's those people as well. And if that's you, I don't know what to tell you. You know, get on the prayer list or get out. OK, because that's really the best choices I can think for you. Great peace have they which love thy law. If you're going to get offended because of things that are written in the law, guess what? You're not going to have peace and you're going to get offended. And really, you're just going to get trodden underfoot of men. That's what's going to happen to you. Philippians chapter one, look at verse 10. So Paul tells these guys this. He says that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. And that's, again, exactly what I'm talking about here. We need to be without offense, meaning we need to make sure that the things of God aren't causing us to get offended. Right. Look at your sermons all the time. I'm like, oh, man, that's me. You know, that's me. I'm doing that. But I still come to church every week. And you're like, oh, you have to be the pastor. Yeah. Well, how do you think I got here? Because I heard what I was doing wrong. All right, cool. I'll just change it. You know, no big deal. But the world we live in today wants to give a trophy to everyone for every attempt on every single thing that they do. That's the mentality that we have today. That's the world that we live in. And guess what? Nothing is getting done that way. We could do so much more for God if we could just understand how to not be offended. Right. Go to Jude and we're going to look. Yeah. Go to Jude chapter 20. All right. If you look for it, I'm going to sign you up for hospice. All right. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. So, for example, let me let me just show you what this looks like. Point number one. Retaining Savior requires you to be offense proof. So you say, OK, I got it. I've read John 15, heard the sermon, heard what you just said. Amen. OK, well, Jesus made this statement again. He said that you are now clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Now, can you handle the deeper application? Right. Which is what? When somebody picks a fight with you over that thing, are you going to contend for that or even or what about this? What about this? Let's say we call out some preacher because they're not preaching the right gospel. Now, let's see how you do. Are you going to get offended? It's easy. It's easy to read these things in here. You hear me talk like this and say, oh, you know, you're now clean through the word. Jesus is the only way. OK, good. OK, there's a certain group of people that are Christians are saved. That doesn't bother them. But now all of a sudden when I get up here and I say that Sam Gibbs got a turd libs. He's Sam turd lib gib. Right now, all of a sudden that offends people and they don't like to hear that. But here's the thing. If you're going to call yourself an evangelist and say that Jesus wasn't supposed to be named Jesus when the Bible clearly says that he was. You know what? That is crap coming out of your mouth. So how am I wrong by saying Sam turd lib gib? It's just a thing. That's biblical doctrine. Right. But there's a certain group of people. In fact, one of them used to come to this church and he took offense to that. You know what? What is he doing today for God? Absolutely nothing. Zero. See, he couldn't handle the deeper application of this. Oh, I could read a Bible verse and not get offended. I don't get offended over the gospel. I get it. Saved by the word. No problem. OK. But when we actually start to contend for the faith, now it's a different story. Now a line has been drawn on the sand and you have been called to battle. And now all of a sudden you can't handle that. That's a problem. And that's why I'm telling you, you know, people all day long. Oh, I like to read that. I like to hear that. But when it comes time for you to stand up, for you to hear these things, then what? Are you going to get offended? Look at verse three, Jude, verse three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. We are called by the Bible to earnestly, zealously, urgently contend for the faith. That means to fight for it. So when we hear people out there saying stupid stuff and they are people of influence, we need to call them out. Right. And you know what that does? Unfortunately, that draws a line inside churches a lot of times that causes people to get offended and to walk out. And you know what? I don't like to see that. You know, nobody likes to see that, but it is what it is. And that's why I said point number one, retaining savor requires you to be offense proof. You know, we need to take these doctrines and really think about them and ask ourselves this question. When the battle comes over them, are you going to get offended? Go to Galatians chapter one, Galatians chapter number one. Look at verse six. Again, much familiar here. Galatians one six. He says, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. And, you know, unfortunately, today we're just seeing this just all over the place today. All over. Not a week goes by where somebody in this church doesn't hear of another church. That's pastored by somebody who perverts the gospel. And that's why I get up here week after week and I and I call these things out and I mention these people because they pervert the gospel. A lot of people, they hear the word pervert or pervert and they think of some sexual immorality. And that's really not the full definition. You know, it means the alteration of something from its original course, meaning or state to a distortion or corruption of what was first intended. Well, what did Jesus say? You are now you're clean by the word that I speak unto you. Right. And there's all kinds of verses that support that. Once you're saved, you are always saved. No works involved at all. So now when somebody perverts that and they say, well, no, you still have to have the works. Guess what? We're dealing with we're dealing with a perfect. Somebody who's perverted the gospel and we need to fight with those people. We need to contend with those people. I don't care if your aunt goes to their churches. I don't care if your mom goes there. They're going down because you know what? Those people souls are at stake. And I know that I know you guys and I know you see it on people's faces when you knock on the doors. Right. And they're like, I go to life church. I go to the journey. What does your church teach you how to how to do it? What do you have to do to get to heaven? Got to turn or burn. Got to turn. You got to follow the commandments. Right. It's like universal. How many people that go to this church would say that? Nobody. Not unless somebody just walks in here for like one service and then some for some freakish reason goes out and claims. Oh, I got to show the Baptist Church. They say that. But look, you're not going to come here for like more than a day, probably, and not hear that truth. Right. And that's how it should be. But when we're going to these other churches out here in a community and it's a week after week. And now it's been like a year and a half and we're here in the same 25 churches, 30 churches, you know, and we're talking to like eight people a week that go to each one of them and they all have the same gospel. Guess what? You know, if it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. Right. Look at verse eight. It says, But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that ye have received, let him be accursed. I didn't say that. Paul said it. But you know what? I will say it. People that preach a perverted gospel are accursed and they can go to hell. You know what? And luckily we have a church full of people that that doesn't offend. At least I hope. At least I hope. Go to First Peter, chapter three. Again, so the point is, it's easy to hear these things when you come to one of these churches and be like, OK, I'm on your side. I get it. But when your feet get called to the fire, when your friends, your family members, your co-workers come up to you and now they take issue with what you said. Right. Are you going to get offended? And if you know you are, you need to make the change. You need to learn to develop that love for God's law, for the Bible. Look, force yourself to read it every single day. You say it's just so hard. Read one page. You trying to tell me you can't read one page a day? Have I ever told you guys a story about how I came to to love flan? I used to hate that stuff. I tell you guys a story about how we used to go to this Mexican restaurant. This kid used to just always give it to me. I hated it. And then after a while, I just learned to like it. Now I like it. That's how I learned to like liver as well. You know, my mom made it several times when I was little. You know, and when I grew up, I didn't depart from it. So that's what it is. Again, force yourself. Right. Not everything in life is going to be handed to you. Not everything in life is just going to be spoon fed to you. You have to muster up the guts to learn to love God's law. You need to open this book up every single day and read it for yourself. All right. First Peter three, look at verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Does that sound like an option? No, it doesn't. And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. What do you think of when you read the first few words of this verse? But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts always. I think of Bible memorization. I think of a continuation in your Bible reading every single day. You know, I think of these things faithfully going to church, soul winning, praying for people. That's what I think of. Sanctify, separate a place for God in your heart. Here's point number two. Retaining savor means you can explain the gospel and your beliefs. So you make a claim. I always say this. Now you have to back it up. That's only fair. That's what we require of our enemies, right? When they say, hey, no, you have to turn from your sins. Hey, no, you should let the pedophile and hey, no, you should let the sodomite in. What do we always do? How did you come to that conclusion? Make them prove those things, right? Well, guess what? God expects the same thing from us. We need to sanctify the Lord God always in our hearts, but we need to make sure that we are always ready to give an answer for the things that we believe. I mean, is that really too hard? Is that really too much to ask? Let me just kind of show you an example here. Here's here's a quick little application or a little visual. When I first started soul winning, I got this from Framing the World because it's camouflage, right? It's kind of, you know, but here's what I did. You know, I said, you know what? I'm going to sanctify the Lord God in my heart. I'm going to make sure that I can explain the gospel and other things that I believe. So I got this Bible here and I tabbed it up. Now, some of you guys do this. Some of you already know the verses. You don't have to. But let's say you're here today and you don't know, right? Well, here's a good way to start. You get all the soul winning verses and maybe get tabbed so that you can open it up. You know, so I got a little note here that says like one, two, three, you know, and I just kind of know which order to go to. And plus it's got the little, you know, like, like Romans, I got that abbreviated, you know, 310. So I know that, oh, that's where I always start. Just make it quick. Because one of the fears that a lot of people have is like, well, like I know, I know it's not by works. I know I'm saved. I'm clear on it, but I can't clearly communicate that to other people. And furthermore, what if they have something hard to say against me? What if they challenge me? I'm afraid I won't be able to answer them, right? That's why you need to do this. I've got other things tabbed in here as well in case they bring certain things up. Some of you guys have little sheets in the front of your Bible, right? And you got little notes and you know, you can open that up. Okay. They asked about the Trinity. Here's all my verses on that. And you can go there and you can deal with that. Oh, they asked about, you know, more works or what, whatever the case is, right? You've got those things written down. You've got a plan, right? You've got a plan. If you don't have a plan, look, you're, you're, you're setting yourself up for failure. Not only use this too much anymore because the font's super small, but I just wanted to show you this as an example. You know, get a plan, you know, get these tabs. If you think that'll help you out. And you can either just write the little references on there and memorize the way to go. Or, you know, you can just write one, two, three and then just know, okay, well, I'm on step number six now. So, well, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. You know, there's different ways to do it. You need help with that. I can help you out with that. Go back to Matthew chapter number five. Again, it's the old proverb, you know, if you're not planning for success, you're planning for failure. Matthew chapter five, look at verse six. And don't forget my second point here, which says, retain, retaining saver means you can explain the gospel and your beliefs. Look at verse number six. Jesus says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be fulfilled or they shall be filled. You know what? And that's what I believe this church is. I believe everybody in this church has this thirst, right? For righteousness. Well, how do we get righteous? What's a gift from God? Right. But that doesn't mean we just stop there, right? We have that thirst and we we want to see other people partake in that righteousness. Well, guess what? If you want to be able to make that happen, you've got to have a plan. You've got to have a plan. You've got to be able to know how to explain what you believe. You don't have to memorize the verses right away before you give them somebody. But you should start learning where to go. There's a lot of information in the Bible, right? I mean, there's a lot of books. There's a lot of verses. There's a lot of different things in there. But knowing where to go is a game changer. Knowing where to go and when to go to those things. That's another thing, too. And a lot of it just comes from time, you know, from experience, so on and so forth. But we need to realize, you know, don't let that thirst for righteousness, you know, and that desire to always get people saved. Don't let that die off because Jesus said you are blessed by even having that desire. You know that burning in your stomach like, I just want to get somebody saved. I just want to go to this neighborhood and get people saved, you know, or afterwards, nobody gets saved. You're just like, man, that sucks. Don't lose that because someday that's going to get fulfilled. But you know what? Your thirst for other righteous acts is going to be fulfilled someday as well. So don't lose that. You know, we have to unfortunately, temporarily endure this world. They're up to no good. They're up to all kinds of schemes and mockery and trickery. And that bothers us and that should bother you. Let it bother you. Let that make you angry. You know what? There's nothing wrong in the world with a little righteous anger. You know what? That's what gets stuff done. Because think about it. Jesus said, hey, he gives them all these blessings, right? You know, the Sermon on the Mount, you know, blessed are you. And he just keeps saying that over and over again. There's all these blessings. And then in verse 13, what does he say? You know what? Don't lose that saber. Right? Retain that. Hold on to that. Hold on to that. Hold on to that saber because by so doing, you are blessed. And that's just something I think sometimes we need to just kind of look at in our own lives, you know. And just realize that because it gets tough out there. You know, your co-workers want to come at you. Your stupid customers want to say stuff under their breath, you know, or whatever. And it just bothers you. Just gets you upset. But you know what? It's good. It's good for you. It means you're blessed. And it means that someday Jesus is going to fulfill that. Go back to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter number 3. We're going to look at verse 15 again for my third point. Let's read the verse again. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. Now don't miss this. He says with meekness and fear. With meekness and fear. A lot of times we'll just read that and we'll just focus on what I focused on for my second point. You know, hey, you know, just make sure that, you know, that you can give somebody a reason to explain the hope that's in you. Right. You know, when everything's falling down, you're like, hey, you know, Jesus is my rock. You know, these things don't move me. You know, you should be able to explain that. What gives you that hope. But here's the key. If you want to project that, that vision on other people, you have to do it in meekness and fear. Here's point number three, retaining your savor causes others to thirst. So when you adopt this attitude, this meek, humble spirit, and you really show that you fear the word of God, guess what? That projects on other people, right? Because nobody wants to listen to a pompous, arrogant jerk. Let's just be honest, right? We've all seen people. We've had people in this church that would go up and just talk down to people at the door. How many people did they get saved? Zero. And the ones they did say they got saved, I seriously question. Right, when you're just like, whoa, did you know that Billy Graham went to hell? It's like, yeah, but dude, people don't need to know that right off the bat, man. All right? They need to know that they are sinners and on their way to hell and they can be saved and saved forever. That's what they need to know. You don't need to be like, okay, well, let me just stop here. You know the fags the Bible says are dogs? How about we get them saved and maybe just kind of built up a little bit. Give them a little bit of foundation, bring them into church, get them baptized and then get into all that stuff. You know what I mean? Unless they ask, right? If they ask you about that, that's not what I'm talking about. You know, give it to them, you know, give them an answer for the reason I hope to tell you. All right, nothing in the world wrong with that. So point number three, retain our Savior causes others to thirst. You think about it, right? We want to be salty in the sense that Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter five, because that is going to cause other people to want to hear what you have to say. So when you go up to somebody and they could see that fear that you fear God, you've got that healthy dose of fear. They could see, look, this person wants me to hear what they're saying, right? I could see that, you know, they're looking at you and they're like, man, you know, I can see that you see danger on me and I need to change. I mean, I might need to listen to what you have to say. See, when the Mormons and the JDubs, when they go around, they're just like super duper fake nice because they're not preaching hell. They're not preaching the right gospel. They're trying to slide their way in and trick them into becoming part of the organization. Whereas we're like, hey, look, I'm no better than you, man. I'm a sinner as of today. All right. And guess what? I care about you. There's a lot of other things I could be doing right now, but I'm here at your doorstep. Because I know it's going to happen to you if you don't call upon the name of the Lord. I've read Matthew Chapter nine. I've visualized those flames that are never quenched. I've seen those worms that never die in my mind and I see them on you and I don't want that to happen. And that's why I'm here today when they can sense that, you know, and they're not a reprobate, obviously, but they're going to listen to you. That's why he says, hey, give those people these answers, but do it with a meek and humble spirit and do it displaying the fear of God. So that's why I said retaining our Savior causes others to thirst. When you have those two things, you can put those two things together. Look, you can cast vision on other people. You can make them want to listen to you. And isn't that the goal? Right? We don't want to go up to them and be super boring. Right? Like our old song leader was. Hi, I'm from Children's Faith Baptist Church and yeah, just you want to hear the Bible? OK. Nobody wants to hear that. It's not meek. And there's no fear of God coming from your personality. It's true. Go back to Matthew five real quick. We need to have the right attitude as believers. Right. That is also, I would say, just a huge part, a huge part of being salt. Being salt is making it so that other people want to hear the truth. You know, I was looking online. I didn't have time to print this out, but I was kind of searching some commentaries. I think it was on Bible Hub or something like that. And I was just reading these and literally I read one that was like this long on my computer screen. I had to do a couple scrolls and I thought I was gonna be late for church because I was literally sleeping, you know, looking at this thing. It made no sense. It was all English, too. And there was like sentences, but it made no sense. It was completely tasteless, absolutely tasteless. And that's what you're going to get from a lot of these scholars and all these commentators and a lot of these pastors that are out there today. Nothing but tasteless garbage. That is not how we want to be. We've got to have that right attitude. Matthew 5, look at verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Look, you go to somebody's door with that meek and humble spirit full of fear of God. Guess what? You own that kingdom. You're in that kingdom. You project that kingdom. And that is going to help you get people saved. Verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Look, it's the proud, arrogant jerk that doesn't have that mourning in his heart for the lost. Verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You know, these things are true. Jesus is saying, hey, realize these things, be like these things, and you will not lose that savor. And guess what? If you don't, if you're full of savor, you've checked yourself and you just realized, you know what? I need to make sure that I'm causing other people to thirst after the word of God, then guess what? Guess what? You will be more effective out-souling. You don't have to turn there. But 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 2 says this. For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonian. That Achaea was ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many. Think about that. Corinthians, they were all jacked up, weren't they? Paul writes them a big rebuke, and they start making changes. They start displaying the right amount of zeal, and now Paul's praising them. Now he's saying, hey, now you're on the right track. Now your zeal is actually provoking other people. And that's what I'm trying to tell you. Point number 3, retaining our savor causes other people to thirst, and that's what we want. That's the goal, because the more people we can get to thirst after the things of God, right, the more victories we're going to have for the kingdom of God. And that's what this thing's about. It's not about just being spoon-fed everything like the world wants to give you. Right? Leave that to them. Remember, sometimes I think we just forget we are ambassadors here. We need to make sure we're not getting wrapped up too much in the things of the world. You know, that's the wrong way to be. And so one more time, here's the bottom line. Christians that are useful are effective, and Christians that are effective cause others to thirst. And if you take anything from this, take that. Check your savor. Ask yourself, am I a savory Christian? Have I lost my savor? Am I easily offended? Or can I still stand strong when people attack me? Can I still stand strong when our church draws a hard line in the sand? And I hope the answer is yes. I hope you just take these things and just remember them. Because, you know what, everybody's always asking, how do I get more people saved? How do I get more people saved? What do I have to do? What do I have to do? Well, you've got to learn to be a little salty. That's what you have to do. And that, my friend, is going to cause other people to want to drink what you're giving them. And it ain't Kool-Aid. I know my last name's Jones, right? But I'm not related to Jim. So just remember that. All right, let's bow our heads to that word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church and for everything that you've blessed us with, Lord. I just pray you continue to bless our church, continue to grow us, Lord, and be with us as we go soul winning and come back this weekend, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.